Military

Robotics is a fast-growing industry, and in the next couple of decades, could be responsible for producing a large portion of the Army's soldiers. Said General Robert Cone in an Army Aviation symposium, the Brigade Combat Team could be reduced from 4000 to 3000 soldiers, using a combination of drones and robots to fill the reduced ranks.

The Google-owned Japanese robotics company SCHAFT has won the DARPA Robotics Challenge Trials by a wide margin. It scored 27 out of 32 points, beating its nearest competitor IHMC Robotics by seven points. Coming up third was Tartan rescue with 18 points, and MIT following that with 16 points.

The clandestine RQ-180 drone developed for secretive electronic surveillance and strike missions for the US Air Force has been further detailed, though military officials still refuse to confirm the leaked $2bn project. First revealed earlier this month as part of an Air Force project to operate high-altitude remote missions in hostile airspace, the RQ-180 will fly as high as 11 miles up, it's suggested, and be the first in a new breed of super-fast, super-stealth drones slowly becoming public.

Forget Amazon delivery drones; the US Air Force's latest unmanned stealth craft has reportedly already taken to the skies, potentially capable of mounting clandestine electronic warfare in enemy territory. The drone, believed to be the RQ-180 and made as part of a potentially $2bn project by Northrop Grumman, is already running test flights ahead of full operations by 2015, it's reported, and be focused on missions in airspace where the US Air Force's existing, less stealthy unmanned craft cannot go.

A US Navy submarine has made a successful launch of an aircraft while submerged. The submarine used in the test was the USS Providence. The UAV launched by the submarine was a small fuel-cell powered unit that was able to fly a mission lasting several hours.

During WWII, the US captured one of the largest submarines ever built by the Japanese. The US Navy intentionally scuttled the massive submarine during the war and the exact location of the sub was then lost for decades. A group of researchers from Hawaii has announced that the submarine has been found again.

The US Army could incorporate armed robots in the field within the next five years, according to a report by Computerworld. A recent demonstration at Fort Benning by four robotics companies showed mechanized infantry eliminating targets from 150 meters away. Military strategists were satisfied with the demonstration. As Lt. Col. Willie Smith put it: "We were pleased with what we saw here. The technology is getting to be where it needs to be."

The real-deal Iron Patriot may be closer to reality than we think. In a revelation that somehow escaped the eyes of the press (including ours) for months, a May 28th release from the United States Army suggests that their researchers are working on a request from SOCOM - the U.S. Special Operations Command for technologies. This request was made for a Tactical Assault Light Operator Suit, or TALOS.

In the game America's Army: Proving Grounds, the actual real-deal United States Army has commissioned yet another shooting game for the public. This game is not the first - and it wont be the last - game created for the Army to show off what it might be like to be a member of their ranks, and it's being released in Beta mode to Steam this week. This game is entirely free to download, free to play, and aims to display small unit tactical maneuvers and training "that reflects the current day Army."

Earlier this month, we heard word that the US Department of Defense would be approving Samsung and Apple devices for use with Pentagon employees and other military and Defense Department personnel. Samsung gained approval first, and now Apple devices have gotten security clearance, allowing even more options to choose from when it comes to choosing a device to use at the Pentagon.

As drones become more controversial, the government is digging deeper into the technology to make it more useful. Case in point: the US Navy make history by developing a specialized drone that can takeoff and land from and aircraft carrier. The X-47B, as it's called, is in its prototype stages, and it marked the first time that an unmanned aerial vehicle has taken off from an aircraft carrier.

When NASA aims to hit a volcano to study its fabulous plumes of heated debris, they do it in style: with a set of Dragon Eye unmanned aerial vehicles. The mission NASA rolled with three Aerovironment RQ-14 Dragon Eye UAVs from the United States Marine Corps (USMC), these vehicles issued via the General Services Administration’s San Francisco office. It was NASA’s Ames Research Center, at Moffett Field, California that negotiated the transfer, and the Turrialba Volcano, near San Jose, Costa Rica, that they've flown over.